Due Date: 9/14

STUDY GUIDE

Scandal & Civility: Journalism and the Birth of America Democracy

By Marcus Daniel

Ch. 1: John Fenno

1.     Who was John Fenno and why did he found and publish the Gazette of the United States? John Fenno was a journalist that turned printer.  He formed the newspaper, because he wanted political reports about national events that had impartial principles.  He printed his paper free of advertising, so there were no distractions.

2.     Was he a Federalist or a Republican? He was a federalist.

3.     What did he hope to accomplish with his newspaper? What did he think of as his duty? (p. 25)  Fenno hoped that his paper would inform citizens of the new republic and help form national political culture. He thought his duty was to encourage public support of the people who were elected and for them to respect the government.

4.     How did he feel about George Washington?  From the readings, the impression one can get is that he idolized him.  He was speechless on occasion and he followed him to appearances.

5.     Given the introduction and the issue of character being revealed by the private self, what about the fact that he left his wife and many children (ultimately 14) in Boston when he went to NY? What do you think it reveals about him, if anything? Is it easy to come to any conclusion given the differences in our way of thinking in the 21^st century? Or may it is? No matter what generation is time you are from, leaving your family is not the right thing to do.  Especially in that time, the men were to main support for the family.  He had a lot of kids to support, more than families of today.  It was selfish of him to leave, when he could have functioned in Boston.

6.     Why did Fenno think panegyrics were a good idea? (pp. 36-37)  He wanted people to feel free to praise politicians for good work.  He thought that if there was no praise, political leaders would avoid difficulties they were faced with during their service.

7.     Fenno believed that man (sic) was born rather barbaric, and that civilization was possible only when they learned to control their natural and elemental desires. (p. 33) What do you think? What do you think most American people think today? This theory can be explained, because when we are kids, we don’t know what is right and what is wrong.  We spend most of the time figuring out what we can do and what we can’t.  Our parents help with some of it, but the rest is experimental.  When we age, we are able to control it better.  Most people in America would probably agree with this.

8.      Why did Fenno at first sell no advertising? Why did he change his mind?  At first he had no advertising, because he didn’t want any commercial distractions from his political news.  He had to change his mind because his paper was struggling to get readership and he was in debt.

9.     Fenno thought of himself as objective because he wasn’t supported by a political party; his aim was to be supportive of the federal gov’t. Is that really objective?  It doesn’t seem to be objective, because a government can be swayed to a side depending upon who is leading the country.  Then they will have an influence on his political writings.

10. Fenno supported Hamilton’s ideas on federalizing the states’ debts from the Revolutionary War, which had become a very divisive issue.  (p. 42) Can you see any parallels with our situation today?  Fenno believed that we needed to restore the public credit.  This can be said for today.  We are short on jobs which is where most people make money.  If we could get the unemployment rate to go down, our public credit should improve.

11. Fenno “pronounced the public debt a ‘NATIONAL BLESSING.’” (p. 44) Wow! Can you imagine anyone saying that today? What was his logic?  No one would claim that about our situation today.  His logic was that from this debt he thought that it would bind Americans together and bind the wealthy to the federal state.

12. What was Fenno’s relationship with Thomas Jefferson? Could such a thing happen today? (p. 45)  Thomas Jefferson was the secretary of state. He was supporting Fenno’s paper. This would allow Jefferson to have his ideas flow through Fenno into his newspaper.  This would not happen today.

13. What were the ideas of John Adams that most people found so unattractive? What do you think of his ideas? (pp. 49-50)  He told people that they should fear France.  He sounded like he had become a supporter of a monarchy.  I think his ideas were not appropriate, because they were during a time that was too soon after the Revolutionary War.

14. Explain the French Jacobin Party’s policy of de-Christianization. (p. 53) Was it successful?  It was a policy designed to abolish Christian worship in France and replace it with a civil religion dedicated to the goddess of Reason.  It was not successful.

15. What happened in the U.S. that took their attention away from the French Revolution? (pp. 54-55) Yellow fever had taken over Philadelphia.  People were leaving and trying to stay alive which took focus off the French.

16. What was Fenno’s stance on the French Revolution?  He feared that it would have influence on the growth of the domestic opposition to the federal government.

17. What is xenophobia? What did it have to do with Fenno? (p. 57)  Basically is a fear of foreigners.  He was blaming his decline in readers on exiles from Europe.